by Susan Stoker
“Then why are they asking about Meredith and her kids?” he asked, completely confused.
Taylor chuckled. “They’re making a point.”
“Well, it’s a shitty point if I don’t understand it,” Eagle griped.
“You remember everyone. I remember no one,” Taylor said, still smiling. “We’re different. It’s probably fascinating to them. We make a weird pair.”
“Fuck you guys,” Eagle told his friends. “I can’t believe you haven’t gotten sick of doing that shit by now.”
“It’ll never get old,” Bull admitted.
“And you guys aren’t weird,” Gramps told her. “Opposites attract.”
“We’re just friends,” Eagle and Taylor said at the same time.
Bull, Smoke, and Gramps all grinned.
Taylor looked at Eagle and couldn’t help but giggle. He looked so put out, but she thought it was hilarious. She turned her gaze back to his friends. “I know Eagle told you about my prosopagnosia. It’s a pain in the ass, but there’s nothing I can do about it. When I meet people, I do my best to memorize things about them that stand out. Scars, tattoos, things like that. Anything distinctive that helps me recognize them when I see them again. I was hoping at least one of you would have some huge wart or something on your face so I’d immediately know it was you, but alas, you’re completely normal looking.”
Smoke gasped and held a hand to his chest. “Normal? Aw, come on. We’re the most handsome men on the planet. It’s a shame you can’t see that.”
Everyone laughed.
“But seriously, we’re just as interested in your condition as we are in Eagle’s. That’s where his name comes from, you know . . . because he’s got an eagle eye. If we rib you about it, it’s because we like you, not because we’re being malicious.”
Taylor nodded. She liked these men already. She didn’t know them, but they’d done everything right. She felt comfortable giving them the benefit of the doubt.
“So you met Eagle at the grocery store, huh?” Bull asked. “He hates that place.”
“I know, he told me,” Taylor said.
“You weren’t hurt in the altercation you witnessed, were you?” Gramps asked.
“No. Everything happened so fast. The guy in the convertible whipped into the spot so quickly, the man driving the van didn’t even have a chance to get in there. He jumped out and started screaming, and then the fight was on. It was crazy.”
“Did anyone try to stop them?” Smoke asked.
“No. They were beating the hell out of each other, and one pulled a knife,” Taylor said. “No one was going to step into that. A few people videoed it, though, of course. Luckily there were lots of witnesses, so they didn’t need me.”
“Don’t do that,” Eagle suggested.
Taylor looked at him in surprise.
“We’ve talked about this. Just because you wouldn’t be able to point them out in a lineup doesn’t mean you wouldn’t make a good witness. You were very clear in what you saw and what happened. You gave the cops a vivid picture of who took the first swing and who was in the wrong. The other witnesses were able to back up what you said. Don’t discount what you can offer simply because you wouldn’t recognize their faces.”
They had talked about that one day on the phone, and Eagle had basically said the same thing then. Taylor had blown him off, thinking he was just being nice, but she could see now that he one hundred percent believed what he was saying. And it felt good.
“And that cop was out of line, saying what he did,” Eagle added.
“What’d he say?” Gramps asked.
“He compared Taylor’s condition to that movie 50 First Dates,” Eagle told his friends.
At their looks of confusion, Taylor quickly explained. “I take it you haven’t seen it. Drew Barrymore has a condition where she doesn’t remember anything that happens after going to sleep each night. So every day is a blank slate. Adam Sandler starts dating her, but he has to get to know her from scratch every day because she never remembers him. It’s a comedy. But that’s not anywhere near my issue. There’s nothing wrong with my memory. I’ll remember meeting you guys, seeing this amazing building, and eating lasagna. But tomorrow, if you all lined up in front of me, I wouldn’t know who’s who.” She shrugged. “That movie’s kinda been the bane of my existence.”
“I can imagine,” Bull said.
“That sucks,” Gramps commiserated.
“I’m hungry,” Smoke threw out after a moment.
Taylor giggled.
“And those are my friends,” Eagle said with a sigh.
“What? We’ve been smelling the lasagna cooking all day,” Smoke defended himself. “It’s been torture.”
“Skylar should be here any minute,” Bull said. “She stayed late at school to change out her bulletin boards.”
“Great. I want to show Taylor the dispatch room before we eat. Hopefully Sky’ll be here by then,” Eagle said as he stood.
Taylor followed, as did the others. She kind of wanted to look around the small room he’d shown her some more, but Eagle put his hand on her back and urged her toward the door. The heat from his touch felt good. Which made Taylor feel guilty.
Eagle was her friend. That was it. He couldn’t be more. Wouldn’t want to be more.
They all walked back up the stairs, and she and Eagle headed for one door while the other three continued on into the great room and toward the kitchen.
Eagle opened the door, and Taylor saw a woman sitting in front of three large monitors. She wore a headset and was obviously talking to someone.
“The accident is blocking the right lane, but you should be able to sneak around the traffic by using the shoulder . . . right, let me know when you’re on scene.”
Then she turned and smiled. “Hey.”
“Busy?” Eagle asked.
The woman shrugged. “No more than usual.”
“Christine, this is Taylor. You’ll hopefully be seeing her around now and then.”
“Hi,” Christine said, her smile wide and friendly.
“Hey.”
“Are you a new driver?”
Before Taylor could answer, Eagle explained. “No. She’s my friend. She’s the one who showed me which damn flour to get the last time I shopped.”
“Oh!” Christine exclaimed. “Thank God you were there. Eagle’s awesome, but he sucks at shopping.”
“Hey, I’m not that bad,” Eagle said.
“Um . . . yeah, you are. It’s a good thing Archer’s here now. Have you had some of his lasagna yet? Robert brought me a slice not too long ago. I inhaled it! Archer’s a god in the kitchen. If he leaves, I’m quitting.”
“No one’s leaving or quitting,” Eagle said in exasperation.
“I’m just sayin’ . . . he’s that good,” Christine told her boss.
“Noted,” Eagle said with a small shake of his head. “Any problems tonight?”
“Nope. All’s good,” Christine said breezily. “Go on, go get some of that lasagna. There might not be any left if you don’t get there before Bull, Smoke, and Gramps. They’ve been salivating for dinner all afternoon.”
“Shit!” Eagle swore, feigning panic and grabbing Taylor’s hand and tugging her toward the door.
Taylor managed to turn and say, “It was nice meeting you!” as she was pulled toward the door.
“Same! Enjoy dinner!” Christine called out.
Taylor was too amused to protest as Eagle pulled her down the hallway. When he entered the great room, he bellowed, “Freeze!”
Gramps and Smoke were in the kitchen, and they immediately turned to stare at Eagle. Bull was standing on the other side of the room kissing a woman, who Taylor could only assume was his girlfriend, Skylar. Neither stopped their kissing at Eagle’s loud command. There were two men sitting at the bar, and they comically froze with their forks halfway to their mouths.
“Step away from the lasagna,” Eagle told Smoke and Gramps.
Both
men grinned.
“Relax. No matter what Christine told you, there’s plenty,” Gramps said, turning to continue what he was doing. He plopped the biggest piece of lasagna Taylor had ever seen onto a plate in front of him.
“There’d better be,” Eagle mock threatened as he headed for the kitchen. He hadn’t let go of her hand, and Taylor didn’t have the urge to remind him he was still towing her around. He started to reach for the handle of a cabinet when he finally realized he was still holding her hand. “Sorry,” he said a little sheepishly, squeezing her fingers before finally letting go.
“It’s okay,” she told him softly.
Eagle grabbed two plates and headed for the pan of lasagna. There was only a quarter of the pan left, and Taylor frowned in concern when Eagle heaped a big portion of it onto one plate, and most of the remaining piece on the other.
“Um . . . I don’t want to take the last piece,” she said.
“There’s another pan in the oven,” Smoke told her. “Archer learned really quickly to make double and triple batches of everything.”
Sighing in relief, Taylor watched in amusement as Eagle, after hearing there was more, put the last small piece of the delicious-looking lasagna on his plate. “Is that enough, or do you want more?” he asked, using the spatula to gesture toward the oven.
Taylor couldn’t help it. She laughed. “I think the ten pounds you already put on my plate will be plenty.”
A woman joined in, laughing as well, and Taylor turned. Bull had his arm around the woman’s shoulders, and she was leaning into him. She was on the shorter side, but looked like she fit perfectly against Bull. She had curves Taylor envied and seemed completely at ease in the room filled with over-the-top alpha men.
“Hi, I’m Skylar,” the woman said.
“I’m Taylor.”
“It’s really good to meet you,” Skylar said.
“Same,” Taylor returned. Eagle had told her a little bit about Skylar and how she’d been kidnapped. Looking at the woman now, Taylor couldn’t find any hint of what she’d been through. She knew she was a kindergarten teacher at an inner-city school, and that she was loved and respected by both the students and faculty alike.
Taylor envied her. The other woman looked so put together and content, neither of which was something Taylor ever felt.
Skylar’s auburn hair was pulled back into a bun on the back of her head, and she had on an honest-to-God jumper dress. It was so stereotypical and screamed kindergarten teacher so loudly, Taylor almost wanted to laugh.
She heard Smoke chuckle and looked over at him.
“I can guess what you’re memorizing about Sky,” he quipped. “She dresses like that Monday through Friday. Even I have a hard time recognizing her in jeans and a T-shirt.”
Instead of being put out, Skylar grinned at Smoke’s comment. “I know, I look exactly like what I am. But the school has a dress code, and after all the years of teaching, I find that I’m most comfortable in dresses and skirts when I teach now. But I do like my jeans on the weekends.”
“Well, if I see you on a Saturday or Sunday, please remind me who you are so I don’t get mad at Bull for making those googly eyes at another woman,” Taylor said without thinking.
Skylar’s eyes widened. “Oh crud, I forgot! Hang on!” Then she ducked out from under Bull’s arm and rushed for the same door Taylor and Eagle had entered when they’d arrived.
“Where’s the fire?” Eagle asked.
Bull shrugged. “I hope you don’t mind, Taylor, but I told her about your condition. She asked me a million questions about it, and then said she had an idea.”
Eagle brought both their plates over to an empty spot at the bar while they waited for Skylar to return. They didn’t have to wait long. She rushed back into the room with a huge smile on her face.
She gave something to Bull. Then to Smoke, Gramps, and the two men at the bar, who’d finished eating their lasagna and were now sitting back, relaxing. Then she walked up to Taylor and Eagle and held something out to each of them as well.
“I thought about your condition and how hard it would be . . . especially to meet a bunch of people you don’t know. I mean, who you really don’t know. I had a hard time keeping everyone who works here straight when I first met Bull, and I don’t have the condition you do. So I made name tags for everyone.” She smiled uncertainly. “I thought maybe it would make it easier for you. If everyone wore them around here, you wouldn’t have to wonder who anyone was. They’re magnetic, so they won’t poke holes in our clothes.” She glanced at Eagle. “And they won’t hurt the uniforms either. I know you guys decided not to put name patches on those overalls everyone wears, but I thought, at least around here, people could wear them?”
When no one said anything, Skylar continued on, talking faster, as if uncertain now. “I can make a board to put by the door that’s magnetic. Everyone can leave them there when they go home, and pick them up when they come in. Maybe they can even wear them while they work. I mean, Bull made me see the error of my ways when I didn’t call to confirm his identity when he showed up in his tow truck. The dispatchers could tell callers that their driver will be wearing a name tag, and what his or her name is.”
Bull came up behind Skylar and pulled her back against his chest. Her brows were furrowed, as if she was worried about what everyone might think of the idea.
Taylor looked down at the name tag in her hand. It wasn’t anything special. Oval shaped, plastic, black on the back side with the magnet and white on the front side, where her name was printed in black bold letters. Big enough to see from a good distance away. Looking over, she could see Eagle’s name in the same large letters.
Swallowing hard, Taylor felt her eyes burn, and she looked back down at the name tag in her hand, trying to get control of her feelings.
Eagle lifted her chin and forced her to look at him. “Taylor?”
At the same time, she heard Skylar say, “I’m sorry! It was stupid. Just ignore me. I wasn’t trying to be offensive. I just thought it might help.”
Not wanting the other woman to think for one second that she was offended, Taylor turned to her. A tear escaped and rolled down her cheek. “This is one of the nicest things anyone’s ever done for me. Thank you.”
The sigh Skylar let out was not only audible, but visible as well. “Whew. I didn’t want to overstep, but I couldn’t imagine how it would feel to be surrounded by strangers every minute of every day.”
And that was exactly what it was like. How Skylar understood that, Taylor didn’t know, but it was obvious the woman was compassionate and empathetic. She had a feeling she was an amazing teacher.
“And it’s a great idea for the drivers to wear the name tags on the road,” Smoke added. “It might take some time for them to get used to wearing them.”
“It’s not that hard,” one of the men from the counter said. “You think we’re idiots or somethin’?” He smiled when he said it, so Taylor knew he was kidding.
“Hi, Shane,” Taylor said, reading the name tag he’d attached to his overalls. “Jose,” she said, nodding to the other man, who’d also put his tag on.
“Ma’am,” both said, nodding at her.
It was stupid to be so emotional over being able to call someone by their name, but this was literally the first time in her life she’d been able to do so without introduction. Everyone always had to tell her who they were before she could greet them by name.
“This is a safe place for all of our employees,” Gramps said quietly. “We try to go out of our way to make sure everyone has what they need here. You’re no exception.”
“Thank you,” Taylor whispered.
“Did you save us any?” Bull asked, and Taylor was grateful for the change in topic. She was still too emotional to talk about how much Skylar’s gesture meant to her.
Eagle held out her stool, and she climbed on, then he surprised her by stepping closer. Looking up, Taylor licked her lips, noting just how close he was. I
f she leaned forward even an inch, she could rest her cheek on his chest.
“You okay?” he asked softly.
It felt as if they were the only two people in the room, even though Taylor knew they were surrounded by half a dozen others. “Yeah.”
“And are you really okay with the name tags?”
Taylor nodded. “It’ll make things . . . better.”
“Then I’ll make sure everyone knows to put theirs on as soon as they step inside Silverstone Towing.”
“It seems like overkill when I don’t know that I’ll be here all that much,” Taylor said honestly.
“Why not?”
She frowned in confusion and shrugged. “Because I don’t work here?”
“So? Many of the wives of our employees hang out here. And their kids too. You’re my friend, so you’re welcome to come by whenever you want. You need a change of scenery, you can hang out here. You get sick of your own company, you can come here. Sometimes I like hanging out at Silverstone more than my own apartment. I don’t really like the quiet. I can’t promise we’ll have name tags for all the significant others, but if someone works for Silverstone, they’ll wear one, and you’ll know who they are.”
Taylor wanted to cry again. “Why are you being so nice to me?”
Eagle shrugged. “Because I like you, Taylor Cardin. Your condition doesn’t define who you are as a person. I don’t care that you don’t recognize my face. I know you know who I am here . . .” He picked up her hand and placed it over his heart. “And I don’t say that lightly. I’ve told you more about myself in the last two weeks than I’ve told anyone other than my three best friends. And after tonight, you’ll know all of it. If you still want to hang around me, you’ll be more than welcome here, and anywhere else I am. Understand?”
She didn’t, but Taylor nodded anyway.
Eagle’s lips quirked, as if he knew she was lying when she agreed. He took a step back, and Taylor couldn’t help but feel the loss.
“Eat, Flower. We’ll talk after.”
Knowing Eagle wouldn’t tell her anything before he was good and ready, she clipped her new name tag onto her shirt and picked up her fork. She shoveled a piece of the pasta into her mouth and closed her eyes in ecstasy.